Pearce is a free agent having been released by Notts County this summer.

The 23-year-old played 18 times on loan at Barnet last season and has also had loan stints at Scunthorpe and Port Vale in clocking up his 151 senior appearances.

"I'm someone who enjoys defending. My first thought on the day of a game is about keeping a clean sheet," Pearce told the club's official website.

"It is obviously going to take a bit of time to gel with the squad but I'm hoping to do that as quickly as possible. Like all players, I want to get in the team and play well.

"It will be important for me to strike up a quick relationship with the other centre-backs here and Aaron Downes is probably the person I've spoken to more than anyone else, so I'm guessing that's a good start.

"As a team, the play-offs are a realistic aim for us and if we get that far then anything can happen.

"I remember being the underdogs when I was at Scunthorpe but we managed to win the play-offs."

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t's wrong to be making a joke out of Bender's name at the expense of gay people. It's the kind of childish, uncivilised thing that Football365 would deride and ridicule if it was another media outlet saying. Why is there a need for jokes like this? Does it make your writers feel like men? F365 might suggest that I 'lighten up', but it is genuinely traumatic for people who have been oppressed all their lives to be the butt of jokes, and to be told...

ou can't blame De Gea for wanting to leave, he has enough to do in front of goal as it is as well as taking on the role of Man Utd's version of Derek Acorah in trying to contact and organise a defence that isn't there.